LOCKED UP ABROADBEL Associates Tell Their StoriesScams Gone Bad

"The Hippie Mafia": Eddie PadillaOriginal Brother

"Hunting Mr. Nice"UK Source

THE BEL CONNECTION: Nuclear Physics professor Howard Marks gets involved in smuggling when his friend is arrested in the UK. Later Ernie Combs became his BEL contact.By 1972, he was making £50,000 with each shipment. By the end of the year he was approached by Hamilton McMillan of the Secret Intelligence Service (MI6), a friend from Oxford University, who recruited Marks to work for MI6 because of his connections in the hashish-producing countries of Lebanon, Pakistan and Afghanistan, for his ability to seduce women, and for his contacts with the IRA. The next year Marks began exporting cannabis to the United States to The Brotherhood of Eternal Love, hiding the drug in the music equipment of fictional British pop groups that were supposed to be touring the country; he further expanded his operations with other smugglers and other methods of trafficking, often using his Oxford connections. Marks then connected Ernie Combs, member of The Brotherhood of Eternal Love, with John Denbigh, a man with connections in the hashish-producing nation of Nepal. With the help of the Yakuza, large quantities of the drug would be exported to John F. Kennedy International Airport in the guise of air conditioning equipment, where Don Brown's mob (headed by Carmine Galante) would then take possession of the drugs.n 1976 he travelled to America, and set up a 1,000-kilo deal between Combs and 'Lebanese Sam' – making himself £300,000 in the process; he continued to regularly set up deals between his various American and Far East connections.Marks then travelled to the Far East to set up cannabis deals with Salim Malik, an Afridi hashish exporter who he had met through Durrani (Durrani had since suffered a fatal heart attack), and Phil Sparrowhawk, an exporter from Bangkok; they would smuggle their product over to Ernie Combs in America.Combs was bused and turned witness: Marks still was confident of beating the DEA in court, however Ernie Combs also agreed to testify for the prosecution so as to secure the release of his wife, and Marks had little choice but to change his plea to guilty to racketeering charges.Ventures, in this sense, were not categorized in accordance with cannabis type or places of origin or destination (Pakistani hashish or Thai weed, for example). The operational organization of cannabis trade ventures remains consistent with the personal network approach framing the data source and the theoretical proposal guiding the paper. The difference between one scam to the next is highlighted by the relational and temporal continuity between Marks and his E.O. for a given scam.

Venture 10, for example, involved Marks participating in three scams running simultaneously, but involving distinct places of origin, destination, and cannabis types. The common fabric across these three consignments was that Marks was co-participating in a venture initiated and offered to him by Ernie Combs (Node 3). Marks' personal network members throughout his twenty-year career, Graham Plinston (Node 3) was the largest contact provider. In fact, only one other contact across the 20-year time span - Ernie Combs (N26) - was close to Plinston's network provision in Marks' personal network. Combs was Plinston's main American importer.Combs, on first view, may seem to have been the most conducive contact provider for Howard, however, while he may have provided Howard with more working contacts than Plinston, he was one of the 8 contacts that Howard met through Plinston. The cumulative tie measure in Table 1 captures this otherwise overlooked finding and further accentuates the fact that, in many ways, Plinston made Marks in the cannabis trade. From the 8 working ties that he put into contact with Howard, grew an additional 36 personal network members. This results in an extended efficiency ratio of 4,5 (36/8) subsequent ties per tie already made. Combs' provedmuch lower at 1,7 (17/10).

Early ventures generally had Plinston dealing with Combs (i.e. V3 in Figure 2). While still partnering with Plinston, Howard began communicating directly with Combs. This eventually led 15 to Marks dealing directly with Combs (without Plinston's involvement) for certain consignments during the Rock-Group scam.Marks focused his business on Combs' set-up and this eventually grew to a complete bypassing of Plinston's involvement. Access to contacts within succeeding links in the drug distribution chain (i.e. exporter to importer links) gives one the opportunity to work 'between-links' or to take a brokerage position within smuggling assignments. Combs would gave Marks the opportunity to seize this privileged position.Ernie Combs, his consistent importer and the contact who was probably most responsible for Marks’ ascendancy in the trade as well as his later return, also testified against Marks in order to guarantee the freedom of his own wife who was also detained by the DEA. Marks did not inform on any of his own co-participants, but he did have many turn on him, indicating the potential negative consequences that come with being a strong network player in illegal trades.

V3: Rock-group scam / J. Morris (1973): Marks makes contact with one of Plinston's friends, James Morris,who worked as a transportation manager for rock-group equipment into the United States. Together, they create a fictional rock-group ('Laughing Grass') and begin to smuggle mainly Pakistani and Lebanese hashish into the United States (generally by air) by hiding the cannabis inside the group's speakers. Ernie Combs (and his working association, the Brotherhood of Eternal Love) is the receiver and distributor of the goods on theAmerican mainland. In all, 7 consignments are documented in the autobiography. The last consignment was busted in Nevada and eventually led to Marks' arrest in Amsterdam in the fall of 1973 and his subsequentphase as a fugitive for six years to follow.J.F.K. scams / E. Combs 1 (1975-1978): This operation was Marks' most successful (in longevity andfinancially) throughout his career. Ernie Combs, Marks' main American contact, had a connection (Don Brown)who was able to smuggle large loads of cannabis (from 500 to 1000 kilos of hashish) into New York's J.F.K.Airport. Marks makes new connections with exporters, such as John Denbigh in Nepal, Phil Sparrowhawk in Bangkok, and Raoul (Durrani's successor) in Pakistan. While Marks states that the overall scam consisted of 24consignments, 10 are documented in Mr. Nice.V8: Trafficante scam / E. Combs 2 (1979-1980): Seizing international cannabis market changes, Ernie Combs and a group of infamous American gangsters (among them, Miami-based Santo Trafficante) offer Marks toparticipate in an operation that would involve the shipment (by sea) of unprecedented amounts (in Marks'career) of marijuana from Colombia to the U.K.. Marks turns to his sailor contact, Stuart Prentiss (see Kerrerascam), to take care of the transportation. Marks took care of putting together the transportation assignment aswell as unloading and distributing the consignment. A 15-ton load was initially carried over into Scotland, but£15 million worth of the marijuana was later busted in one of the facilities used for storage. Marks describesthis consignment as the «largest amount of dope ever to have been imported into Europe, enough for everyinhabitant of the British Isles to get simultaneously stoned» (p.176). A 1980 arrest for participating in thisventure put an end to Marks' 6 and a half years as a fugitive and resulted in 2-year spell in England's BrixtonPrison (Marks' first incarceration term).V10: Hong Kong scam / E. Combs 3 (1983-84): These series of consignments are referred to as the Hong Kongscam because Marks coordinated and mobilized all activities between Combs and two exporters (Sparrowhawk from Bangkok and Malik from Pakistan) from Hong Kong. Combs is assigned entrepreneurial opportunity status because it was he who offered Marks to participate. This was Marks' first venture with Combs since the ill-fated Trafficante scam. Marks’ place and role in this scheme was rather straightforward - «I had to ensure that at the end of the day Ernie was due 60% of the gross returns. If I could do all this, then $250 000 of the $2 250 000 Ernie was now sending could be regarded as an advance against the scam's success. Should the scams both fail, I should regard the $250 000 as my overdue coming-out-of-prison, thanks-for-notsnitching money. If all went well, I would make a couple of million dollars. If it didn't, I still had $250 000»(pp.234-235). Not all went well. While the Thailand to California consignment made it by sea, the first load, 5 tons of hashish from Malik in Karachi, never makes it to J.F.K. Airport. They try to make up for this failed venture by shipping 2000 kilos of hashish from Pakistan (Malik) to a naval base in California, but one of the main players (Fred Hillard) dies during the operations. http://gangsquebec.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/Structuring-Mr.-Nice-Entrepreneurial-Opportunities-and-Brokerage-Positioning-in-the-Cannabis-Trade.pdf

A shaggy-dog story based on stranger-than-fiction fact, Bernard Rose’s “Mr. Nice” is casually cheeky and frankly celebratory as it charts the improbable rise and inevitable fall of Howard Marks, an amiable bloke from the valleys of South Wales who controlled a sizable portion of the world’s hashish trade in the 1970s and ’80s. And when he opts to expand his business to the U.S., Marks finds a ready partner in an eccentric American libertine played — eccentrically, of course — by Crispin Glover.

Reliving a Drug Dealer’s Halcyon Days By STEPHEN HOLDEN Published: June 2, 2011

“Mr. Nice” is an affable throwback to those guilt-free days when hippie drug dealers radiated the glamorous aura of avant-garde heroes risking prison to spread the doctrine of liberation through cannabis. The title comes from the name Donald Nice, one of many aliases adopted by Howard Marks, a notorious Welsh drug dealer, now 65, who made millions traveling around the world wheeling and dealing. Mr. Marks, who is played with a piratical smirk by Rhys Ifans, was finally arrested in Majorca in 1988 and spent seven years at a federal prison in Terre Haute, Ind. Eventually paroled and returned to Britain, he is now a celebrity who tours with a one-man show and campaigns for the legalization of marijuana. This movie was adapted from his best-selling 1996 autobiography, and Mr. Ifans’s portrayal of him as a charismatic pied piper with an insinuating leer is entirely persuasive. Unreconstructed hippies, if there are any left, should appreciate the nonjudgmental tone of the film, sporadically narrated by Mr. Ifans in a devil-may-care tone of blasé arrogance. Those of us who were old enough in the 1960s and early ’70s to recall the smug, superior attitude (tinged with paranoia) of the period’s hipoisie will recognize his type and wonder exactly what happened to all those Mr. Tambourine Men preaching drugs, sex and rock ’n’ roll. The movie’s depiction of pot parties and orgies at Oxford accurately evokes the quasi-religious mystique of marijuana and psychedelics in days gone by. Back then the word cartel had yet to enter the general vocabulary, though Mr. Marks’s establishment of an international drug-trafficking network certainly pointed the way. At one point he was said to have controlled 10 percent of the world’s hashish market, his product transported to Britain and the United States from Pakistan and Afghanistan. Air shipments to America were hidden in the speakers of touring rock bands. If “Mr. Nice,” which was written and directed by Bernard Rose, is steadily watchable, it lopes along without building much tension. As a drama about the drug trade, it is the antithesis of “Carlos,”“Scarface” and “Traffic.” There are no blazing shoot-’em-up moments, no melodramatic standoffs, no tragic flameouts. Mr. Marks prided himself on dealing soft drugs and avoiding violence, and the movie is correspondingly soft. Early in the movie its hero flaunts his egotism with a remark after winning an unlikely scholarship to Oxford: “My success went completely to my head, and I’ve been living off it ever since.” From a Welsh coal mining town, he is suddenly in lotus land, surrounded by gentlemen hipsters and beautiful women. He half-jokingly excuses his adoption of his future profession with the flippant explanation that he tried to smoke it all, but there was too much. He takes a break from cannabis long enough to graduate and become a schoolteacher. But an emergency trip to Germany to retrieve the stash of a friend who was arrested lures him back into the business. Crossing international borders with marijuana stashed in the side panels of a Mercedes gives him a kick he describes as a combination “religious flash” and “asexual orgasm.” Mr. Marks meets the love of his life, Judy (Chloë Sevigny, in the largely thankless, underwritten role of a worried partner), with whom he goes on the run. He eventually marries her and they have children. Some of the livelier scenes portray Mr. Marks’s involvement with Jim McCann (David Thewlis), a hot-tempered Irish Republican Army operative through whom he uses an arms-smuggling network to import hashish. Their relationship is complicated by Mr. Marks’s recruitment by MI6 (Britain’s Secret Intelligence Service) to be a spy. But this strand is left undeveloped. If the story has many potentially edge-of-your-seat moments, they generate only mild suspense. In a courtroom scam, Mr. Marks is acquitted on drug-trafficking charges after concocting a tale about having been a spy for Mexican intelligence and producing a bogus witness. Yet it is merely another incident in a movie that gives everything equal weight; it’s all a lark. Without huffing and puffing, “Mr. Nice” tacitly endorses decriminalization of drug use. Mr. Marks’s attitude about drugs is distilled in his offhand comment about the war on drugs in the United States. “How do you declare war on a plant?” he sneers. There are no dissenting voices. MR. NICE Written and directed by Bernard Rose, based on the book by Howard Marks; director of photography, Mr. Rose; edited by Mr. Rose and Teresa Font; music by Philip Glass; production design by Max Gottlieb; costumes by Caroline Harris; produced by Luc Roeg; released by MPI Media Group. At the Cinema Village, 22 East 12th Street, Greenwich Village. Running time: 2 hours 1 minute. This film is not rated. WITH: Rhys Ifans (Howard Marks), Chloë Sevigny (Judy Marks), David Thewlis (Jim McCann), Luis Tosár (Craig Lovato), Crispin Glover (Ernie Combs), Omid Djalili (Saleem Malik), Christian McKay (Hamilton McMillan), Elsa Pataky (Ilze), Jamie Harris (Patrick Lane) and Jack Huston (Graham Plinston).

"Mexican Prison Escape": Frank SayreBay AreaSupplier

If you tuned in to Frank Sayre’s heart-pounding story on Locked Up Abroad: Mexican Prison Escape, I’m sure you have questions. We checked in with Frank to get answers and see what life is like for him today and here’s what he had to say:When did you first learn how to sail? I was 13 and living in San Francisco out in the Sunset District (lower avenues). Neighborhood pals invited me to come to the Sea Scout Base at the foot of Van Ness. I was enthralled and joined. SF Bay is a fantastic place to play on the water.At the time of this story, you owned a 40-foot sailboat. Had you and your brother used it to traffic drugs successfully before the voyage with Mike, Mace & Paul?Yes, to great success. My partner had been picked up (DEA agents). Both of us were fugitive, so was Dan but by a bust from two years previous. Our plane was no longer of use, so I decided to run a load up using a sail boat. I had the money and bought the boat of my dreams, put together a crew, contacted Dan who was living in Mazatlan and worked out a deal with him. I sailed down, picked up 1.500 pounds of marijuana, and made it back to the states two days before X-mas.What was your planned course for smuggling the ton of weed into the States? The same course as the first time. Sail north, taking long offshore tacks till we reached a California state park (Gaviota) and offload. Surfer friends of Dan would help. Dan was aboard this time but not the first time.There are two schools of thought to this. The other was to have taken one very long tack out till one reaches the trade winds, then when enough latitude is made, tack back in. This would have been the better choice.On the night you guys shipwrecked, what do you think went wrong? Anything that should have been done differently?I broke a cardinal rule of seamanship (Never make an inshore tack at night). I had misjudged it, but it was compounded by a sleepy crew member. Had I ordered the man on the first watch (Mike) to make an offshore tack, this problem would never have happened.Have you ever been on a sailboat again, after that terrifying shipwreck ordeal? Yes! I went on to own a 48 foot yawl (with a group of people) a 33 foot sloop and a 30 foot sloop. My passion for sailing ran deep, but it was now with a renewed purpose: the sea and all it’s elements had humbled me. I saw life differently. I appreciated life in a way I had not previously. I was more cautious, more aware of what I was doing while sailing and in every day life. What was the scariest thing you witnessed in the Mexican prison?Several times fear ran its course. Mike received word from his pal Martin (Mex inmate) one day (this was in October) that something heavy had gone down the night before. A guard, for whatever odd reason (maybe he forgot the keys), had left a drunk in the corridor, and by the time he returned the drunk had basted in the head of the inmate who owned and ran a small kitchen. (We often ordered meals at 40 cents each from this man) and had killed him. All of us lived in small Caracas (small huts, dwellings 8×8 to 8×16). Any inmate at any time could enter our dwellings at night and murder us. I got into a fight one morning with an inmate. It happened so suddenly there was nothing I could do to prevent the onslaught. Fortunately it was put to an end when the Vice Presidente of our sector saw what was going on. But, I’d made an enemy. There was not one single thing I witnessed but was part of when Dan and Mike escaped from the ferry. The guard in charge had a major crap fit. Seeing the two of them gone he leveled his Colt-45 at my head. I could do nothing in that instant. I froze and stared back at him. Instead of doing squeezing off a round he smacked me across the back of my head… which was no big deal… but for a moment I had been petrified.During lock-up, were you surprised by anything you missed? (ex: a particular food, drink, scent, or clothing item?)There were the usual pangs for good old American food or just the freedom to go for a walk/hike, a sail, out to dinner. I was happy that we had enough money and could order out for our food. What I really miss was my lover, Sarah. I promised her we’d sail off to Hawaii but Mike, Mace, and Paul showed up. Having a crew I decided to break that promise. Boy, did I feel lowdown after having wrecked the boat and landed all of us in jail not to mention the lose of revenue. I missed her terribly. I wanted so badly to hold her and tell how and maybe even why I’d ruined everything.Your brother Dan was locked up abroad with you. Did going through this experience together challenge or grow your relationship?Both. We had always been fierce competitors, always showing who was best. When I landed us in jail he lorded over me when I wanted him to get over it and be a loving brother. What’s life like for you these days? What are you up to? I spent years getting over what it was that I had done. What drove me to write the book had everything to do with understanding why I self-destructed as what my older bro had done as well as my partner? None of us has escaped the emotional back wash we created. I do not wish to go into what became of them, but as for me I became a better person for having written the book and living an uplifting life.I learned that I had to love and accept all aspects of myself. It’s an on-going feat of accomplishment. I would advise that all people begin learning to love all aspects of who they are.What am I doing now? I’ve become a writer as a result of learning to write and self-publishing a book. I’ll be marketing that book (American Brothers) and another that is already written. The next book is about how I went about learning how to love.